Business: The Economy: Plain or Fancy Comeback?

PRESIDENT NIXON'S economic forecast for 1971 makes the cheeriest of
reading, but is it realistic or merely a panegyric to elevate consumer
and business confidence? Businessmen, professors and politicians have
been arguing that question since the President, in his late-January
budget, predicted a 9% jump in gross national product, to $1,065
billion for the year. The debate intensified last week as
Administration officials testified before the congressional Joint
Economic Committee and encountered skepticism even from some Republican
members. Representative Barber Conable of New York said that the
forecast reminded him of a remark by an anthropologist friend: "The
Zuñis realized that...